Material displacement apparatuses, such as excavating buckets found on construction, mining, and other earth moving equipment, often include replaceable wear portions such as earth engaging teeth. These are often removably carried by larger base structures, such as excavating buckets, and come into abrasive, wearing contact with the earth or other material being displaced. For example, excavating tooth assemblies provided on digging equipment, such as excavating buckets and the like, typically comprise a relatively massive adapter portion which is suitably anchored to the forward bucket lip. The adapter portion typically includes a reduced cross-section, forwardly projecting nose. A replaceable tooth point typically includes an opening that releasably receives the adapter nose. To retain the tooth point on the adapter nose, generally aligned transverse openings are formed on both the tooth point and the adapter nose, and a suitable connector structure is driven into and forcibly retained within the aligned openings to releasably anchor the replaceable tooth point on its associated adapter nose.
There are a number of different types of conventional connector structures. One type of connector structure typically has to be forcibly driven into the aligned tooth point and adapter nose openings using, for example, a sledge hammer Subsequently, the inserted connector structure has to be forcibly pounded out of the point and nose openings to permit the worn point to be removed from the adapter nose and replaced. This conventional need to pound in and later pound out the connector structure can easily give rise to a safety hazard for the installing and removing personnel.
Various alternatives to pound-in connector structures have been previously proposed to releasably retain a replaceable tooth point on an adapter nose. While these alternative connector structures desirably eliminate the need to pound a connector structure into and out of an adapter nose, they typically present various other types of problems, limitations, and disadvantages including, but not limited to, complexity of construction and use, undesirably high cost, and the necessity of removing the connector structure prior to removal or installation of the replaceable tooth point.
Some types of connector structures are rotatable between a locked position and an unlocked position. However, the continuous vibration, high impact, and cyclic loading of the tooth point can result in inadvertent rotation of the connector structure from a locked position to an unlocked position. This may cause excess wear on the connector structure and tooth point interface and may affect the useful life of both the connector structure and the tooth point.
A need accordingly exists for an improved connector structure.